A Few Garden Finds
October 21, 2019
Here are a few photographs taken in August at the Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison, Wisconsin.
1 The red splashes are cardinal flowers, Lobelia cardinalis.
2 Here is a birch—I don’t presume to know which one.
3 Here’s another birch, overlooking two inviting chairs.
4 I’m not sure why I’m drawn to empty chairs. Maybe they represent possibilities . . .
5
6
7
Romancing Reality 
I’m fond of the shadow patterns in #6 and #7.
LikeLike
October 20, 2019 at 9:54 PM
I was kind of embarrassed that I didn’t find more plants on the property as photogenic as those tables and chairs. But there you have it.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 1:37 PM
We get what we get and we do our best.
LikeLiked by 1 person
October 21, 2019 at 1:48 PM
The cardinal flowers and the empty chairs at the end of a path are both feasts for the eyes. I love those lush green colors. They remind me of when I first saw Ireland from the air, in 1959. It really WAS an emerald isle, and few other places can match it.
–Larry Porter
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 10:46 PM
Thank you, Larry. All that green gets to me, too. And with a photograph you can choose what goes in the image frame. For all my viewers know, what lies beyond the frame could be discord of objects and cacophony of color. It wasn’t, but neither did that lush green extend forever, as you might imagine its doing just looking at the photograph. . . . Ireland from the air sounds lovely.
LikeLike
October 22, 2019 at 9:01 PM
Love the surprise of the lobelia cardinalis ! And the chairs hidden by the birch.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 7:07 AM
The cardinal flowers were so unexpected (to me) that I had to see them up close to make sure that’s what they were. Wouldn’t you just like to sit in those chairs and breathe and look around and listen?
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 1:40 PM
I like the inclusion of the table and chairs in with these photos, Linda. The shadows are so interesting.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 11:23 AM
You don’t usually go to a botanical garden to photograph tables and chairs, but I (obviously) found those shadows interesting, too.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 1:41 PM
I’d like to be invited to those chairs.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 4:19 PM
I’m sure they’d be happy to have you, Lynda. One of the nice things about the Olbrich Botanical Garden is that there is no admission fee. So if you wanted to bop over there any time it’s open, you could sit in those chairs and cogitate. You could do it days and weeks and months in a row.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 4:40 PM
I think the wooden chairs are quite inviting and the shadows interesting too. That leaf in number 5 seems to be huge with no reference to judge it by.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 4:30 PM
It was huge—about a foot across. I wanted to capture the topography of the leaf, so filled the frame without indicating the scale.
LikeLiked by 1 person
October 21, 2019 at 4:41 PM
You did so successfully, Linda.
LikeLike
October 21, 2019 at 4:47 PM
Thank you, Steve.
LikeLiked by 1 person
October 21, 2019 at 8:22 PM
Of these are good, Linda – especially like 1 and 6. Adrian
LikeLike
October 22, 2019 at 5:51 AM
Thank you, Adrian. It’s always fun to see who likes what. Number one and number 7 are my favorites, and I almost didn’t use number 6. So thanks for liking that one in particular.
LikeLike
October 22, 2019 at 8:46 PM
Always a pleasure to see your pictures, my friend.
LikeLike
October 23, 2019 at 2:01 AM
🙂
LikeLike
October 23, 2019 at 1:23 PM
I really like the top image. It’s like a happy memory that you can’t quite place.
LikeLike
October 22, 2019 at 8:01 AM
Thanks, John. How nice it would be to have happy memories like the top image, even if you couldn’t place them.
LikeLike
October 22, 2019 at 8:52 PM
Especially like #1 for the red flowers and shades of green
7 feels like I could improvise musically. Thanks
LikeLike
October 23, 2019 at 4:44 PM
Glad you like #1, Mary, and I love the idea of your improvising music to #7.
LikeLike
October 24, 2019 at 9:28 AM
A lovely post, Linda, and I love the opener. I remember Cardinal flower – what a beauty, and you have its essence here. The birches and chairs are nice, and oh, the shadwos, they’re great. 🙂
LikeLike
October 25, 2019 at 9:44 PM
Thanks, Lynn. I think the cardinal flowers’ setting in green makes them even more red. Happy you like the others, too.
LikeLike
October 26, 2019 at 10:19 AM
I share your attraction to empty chairs. I’ve painted a few and will probably paint more. I guess they are evocative. I haven’t been to that botanic garden in quite awhile but it is a nice one, isn’t it? So nice to see the cardinal flowers. I need to plant some more. They don’t seem to linger long in a spot.
LikeLike
November 11, 2019 at 9:25 AM
Since reading your comment, I’ve been mulling over what makes an empty chair evocative. Maybe it’s that they portray potential more than actuality. Someone could sit in them. I don’t get a sad feeling looking at them. In contrast, my photographs of empty picnic benches evoke a different feeling. They do make me feel sad. Picnic benches are meant for more than one person, and their emptiness could mean that one person was waiting for another, who didn’t keep the date. So the first person left. (I’ve actually been telling myself this story for several years!)
LikeLike
November 14, 2019 at 12:42 PM
Our reactions to things can be illuminating, can’t they? When my dad died and we had to pack up the house and sell it, I went out to take photos of the old tree swing he’d hung, down by the lake. I intended to paint it, but I can hardly bear to look at them. Now as I’m looking at that I’m questioning whether I’ve used the correct bear. Must need more coffee….
LikeLiked by 1 person
November 17, 2019 at 9:48 AM